We urge you not to accept Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s request for parole: HC to the government of Haryana

CHANDIGARH: Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the government of Haryana “not to consider” any parole request made by Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the leader of Dera Sacha Sauda, “without permission of this court”.

He is now serving jail terms for murder and rape.
The government of ML Khattar has been under fire for often releasing the divisive Sirsa preacher on furlough and parole, showing a lack of severity against him.

“We would want Haryana to provide an affidavit detailing the number of individuals with similar criminal histories who were convicted in three instances and received this benefit. The respondent (the Dera leader) may turn himself up on March 10 in the meantime, according to HC.
The Dera commander has avoided prison time for 232 days over the previous two years, according to a January TOI story. Currently on parole, he must go back to prison on March 10 after his 50-day sentence was approved on January 20.
Obtain
In 2022 and 2023, Dera Chief was freed for 91 days apiece.
These decisions were made during the hearing of a petition submitted by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee by a division bench made up of Justice Lapita Banerji and Acting Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia.
HC said that after reviewing a thorough chart detailing Dera leader’s releases at various points in time, it was intriguing to read, considering Dera chief’s history and background. Dera head has been freed for 91 days in 2022 and 2023 alone.
“It is also to be noticed that in spite of pendency of the present petition in which notice was issued in Jan 2023, the Haryana govt has still chosen to grant him indulgence of parole again on July 20, 2023, Nov 21, 2023, and Jan 19, 2024 for a period of 30, 21 and 50 days,” the court stated in its rulings.
The SGPC had petitioned the HC in February 2023 to have the 40-day parole that Haryana had given the dera head at that time revoked. Examining the divisional commissioner’s order for parole, which was passed in February 2023, would make it evident, in accordance with the SGPC’s petition, that the dera chief had been granted temporary release in a case in which he had been found guilty and sentenced by a special CBI court in Panchkula on August 25, 2017, and that no mention had been made of his convictions in two separate FIRs pertaining to murder, in which he had been given life sentences on January 17, 2019, and October 18, 2021.
“He was in jail and undergoing sentences under three orders of competent courts, but the order of temporary release has been issued only in one case,” the appeal filed by the SGPC said.